SPENCER
Kristen Stewart delivers a career best with her entrancing and transformative portrayal as the Princess of Wales. Taking place over Christmas weekend at the Queen’s Sandringham estate, director Pablo Larraín’s stylishly unconventional though uneven biopic blends fact and fantasy to show a side of Diana that was dying to be revealed. Her marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) has run cold, but her love is as strong as ever for her two sons, William and Harry. Sadly, she’s by and large alone, suffering the suffocating pressures of the Royal Family while wishing to go back home to simpler times.
In addition to Jonny Greenwood’s superb score, there’s so much beauty and sorrow flowing through this phantasmic, psychological portrait of a lady on the edge of utterly losing it. However, much feels uninspired with Larraín’s campy approach and writer Steven Knight’s inept script. They come awfully close to parodying the very subject they’re wanting to set free. Luckily, Stewart is too stunning to let that happen. Her version of Diana is heavenly, haunting, and heartbreaking.
PETITE MAMAN
The latest from Céline Sciamma, the writer-director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, slowly reveals itself as a gentle fairy tale that’s told through the lens of a little girl with a wonderful imagination. Twin sisters Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz are fantastic, representing the past and present of childhood innocence. Their fast forming friendship undoubtedly leaves a lasting effect. For such a small film, its themes are substantial. Howbeit, there are some strained scenes that hold us back from being totally immersed in what’s unfolding on screen, and consequently what Sciamma whips up falls a little short in achieving the emotional reaction she’s hoping for in the end. But that’s not to say her rendering of the bittersweet beauty discovered in loss, saying goodbye, and the love shared between a mother and daughter is lost, because Sciamma’s affection for her characters makes that next to impossible.
SOCKS ON FIRE
Family drama is inescapable, particularly after a matriarch passes away. The ugliest parts of a sibling sadly comes tearing through when there’s something to gain. Such is the case for writer-director Bo McGuire who sets out to honor his late grandmother and perchance heal some open wounds in this incisive, cathartic, and colorful chronicle of his house that’s demolished a home. While perhaps a tad too involuted, it still doesn’t get any more personal than what McGuire shares with his viewers of the woeful struggle between his drag queen uncle and his jealous, homophobic aunt for their mother’s estate.
Everyone has their reasons for what lead to the family’s damaging dysfunction, and McGuire’s adoration for them all makes it that much more heartbreaking. Though, the biggest toll is taken on McGuire’s mom who appears the saddest about how everything fell a part. It’s the ones you love the most who cut you the deepest. As an introspective and sympathetic documentary, it pushes through the pain to find joy in individuality, especially as it relates to living life as a homosexual in the South. Most importantly, McGuire holds the memory of his grandmother close to his heart while passing on the principles she left behind to write a new chapter on the family she wrote the book on.
THE HUMANS
Richard Jenkins, Steven Yeun, June Squibb, Beanie Feldstein, Jayne Houdyshell, and Amy Schumer make up an exceptional ensemble in a family drama disguised as a horror film. Though, when stripped down to its bare bones – there’s nothing much there that leaves a lasting impression. Writer/director Stephen Karam adapts his own Tony-winning play that’s centered around a Thanksgiving family get together at the youngest daughter and her boyfriend’s New York apartment. This apartment needs some work, to put it mildly. But it also plays a pivotal character in the film, representing something much deeper that’s occurring within its marred walls. Karam slowly builds suspense and has his fun with a few sneaky jump scares, keeping his story gripping until it exposes what’s truly going on. The approach is admirable and definitely has its intriguing moments, and the performances are top-notch as well; yet, we’re ultimately left wandering around wondering what this will all add up to. Regrettably, the answer is quite underwhelming.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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